Brighter than the stars
by Tiffany1502
Summary: During the night of their training camp, Kariya flees his tent and goes to admire the stars, soon joined by Taiyou. TaiMasa, OneShot.


**Hello ! I'm coming back today with a rare pair I REALLY like. This ship is very precious to me, and I hope you could come to appreciate it too~  
I also wrote it for a friend's birthday (JUNE HB AGAIN EVEN IF LATE)  
**

**Please enjoy :D**

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No one in this damn tent seemed to want to let Kariya sleep.

When it wasn't Shinsuke who, because of his small height, turned around and kicked him, Tenma started snoring. Not to mention Nishiki, next to him, who persisted in wanting to extend his arms perpendicular to his body in his sleep.

The night was going to be very long.

In its concept, this training camp was not a bad idea. Coach Endou had decided to take them to the forest, away from the city, and they had spent the day preparing the camp and playing football on an improvised field. So it wasn't as if fatigue wasn't waiting for him. Yet with every minute that went by, Kariya regretted more and more that coming there - although it wasn't as if he had the choice.

With his eyes wide open, the defender stared at the tent ceiling without really seeing it, through the darkness of the night. Also, when Fei's sleeping voice rose around him, it was the last straw. Kariya straightened up abruptly, left the comfortable embrace of his blanket, before opening the tent and leaving this hell.

The fresh air that immediately slipped on his skin was very pleasant. His blue streaks rose slightly in the breeze to caress his neck, so that a short shiver escaped him despite himself. If it was suffocating inside the tent, he would have been almost cold, here outside without a jacket. But there was no way he was going back.

After a glance at the second tent and once he had closed his own – not without letting a swear word escape when the zipper got stuck in the canvas – the teenager walked away a few steps, until the snoring was no longer audible to him.

As soon as his attention was no longer focused on the noise he had just fled, his amber eyes caught the magnificence of the horizon that stretched as far as the eye could see before him. In a festival of dazzling lights, the stars shone equally brightly. It was as if, jealous of each other, each one of them was trying to illuminate the entire surface of the globe on its own. And at their side, more round, sparkling and close than ever, the moon came to mingle with the painting.

Just for this landscape alone, Kariya could no longer regret coming here, no matter how catastrophic the beginning of that night may have been. Without hesitation, he sat down in the grass and lay flat on his back, so that he could keep admiring the firmament. While he thought he could stay alone and quiet, the sound of a zipper, soon followed by the sound of footsteps on the grass caught his attention, forcing him to turn around.

"It's you," he said when he saw Taiyou.

"I heard someone come out, and since I couldn't sleep, I preferred to go out too."

The sketch of a smile was born on the defender's lips when he saw his teammate's dazzled gaze, his head raised to the sky. The bright glow of the moon allowed his features to be delicately illuminated, and was reflected on the azure surface of his eyes.

"You can't see this at Inazuma," he murmured, before lying down beside him.

Kariya approved with a silent nod of his head while, without him even realizing it, his pupils remained fixed on the striker. A strange feeling invaded him, a singular feeling that gave him the impression that, if the stars shone, he was glowing. It probably had something to do with the small dimples that were drawn before his eyes, in which the pale rays were placed. With the way his sloes captured this sweet nitescence. With its orange streaks, placed on the grass, which reminded him of the colour of dawn. With the way his mouth opened up with admiration.

If the moon and stars illuminated the sky, Taiyou shone on earth, like the warm rays of the sun during the day.

"But it's a bit cold"" he suddenly dropped, snatching Kariya away from his thoughts.

The teenager's cheekbones caught fire as soon as he became aware of the thoughts that had just crossed his mind. It was not as if he had never noticed how Taiyou stood out in the middle of a team, like the genius soccer player he was. It only took him one match, in the Holy Road semi-final, to realize it. And this observation was all the more amplified when he began to play alongside them, with Raimon.

"Yeah, but it's still better than inside of the tent," he finally grumbled, as an answer.

A melodious laughter crosses Taiyou's lips, before he responds in a detached way: "That's what I heard. At first, I confused snoring with a wild animal!"

A wild animal... It was probably what they all looked like in that damn tent; the idea seemed pretty right.

"Did they make such a mess that you decided to leave too?"

"Ah, no, they were pretty calm now that I think about it..."

"Then why did you go out?"

The silence flew for a few short seconds between them, soon broken by the sound of nightlife. The hooting of the owls mingled with the sound of the wind sliding gently over their skins; a soothing melody drowned in darkness.

"To come a bit with you," he explained, with a smile on his face. "I recognized your voice when you got angry about the zipper of the tent."

Hearing no answer, Taiyou turned his head towards his teammate, and could not help but giggle somewhat in front of the stunned air that was taking place on his face. They did not know each other as well as he knew Tenma, yet the moments they had already shared were enough to allow him to understand the defender. And he didn't need to be a diviner to guess the inner struggle to which he was probably subject: the shame that someone heard him lose a duel agaisnt a closure, or the misunderstanding that remained behind his innuendo. And in a way, the fact that everything could be read in his amber eyes, which only the celestial vault illuminated, seemed adorable to him.

"If we stay here and don't sleep, we won't be in good shape tomorrow for training."

"You can go to sleep if you want. I'm not going back in there."

Without an extra word, Taiyou let his fingers come to caress the grass on which they were lying. They slipped for a few moments on the greenery, before coming to touch Kariya's. With an almost unsuspected sweetness, his hand rested on his to timidly come and surround it. The defender's entire body stiffened on this unexpected contact, while his face burned like never before. He was sure of it, if Taiyou turned his head towards him, even the darkness of the night would not be enough to hide the red tint of his whole face.

Yet, surprisingly, this feeling was not unpleasant.

"I'm staying," Taiyou whispered, tightening his grip a little.

Against all odds, Kariya surprised himself by responding to his teammate's boldness by letting his index finger slide on his skin. Soft and burning, delicate and soothing; like him. Perhaps the beauty of the landscape around them played a role in the atmosphere that had slowly taken place between them; perhaps he could, at least tonight, accept his attraction, feelings, with the stars as his only witnesses. One thing was sure: if this night were to start again, he would come out of that tent and immediately curse that zipper aloud.

"Your hand is cold," Taiyou whispered.

"Of course, it _is_ cold here."

Without answering, and without breaking this innocent physical contact that bounded them, the striker turned entirely to face him. His free hand came to his bare, frozen arm, and the difference between their two body temperatures gave Kariya a shiver.

Like the sun itself, Taiyou was not only shining, he was warming the surroundings like the bright rays of the day's star. This heat, which now slipped on his skin and spread throughout his being, was so pleasant that, cradled in this way, the defender closed his eyelids.

No doubt that, if he had dared to turn around, he would have seen Taiyou's cheekbones turning red, lit by the soft and dim light of the firmament. Without ever breaking the ties of their embraced hands, he too had let his eyes close slowly, to join him in Morpheus's arms.

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**I hope you liked it! Please don't forget to leave a review, it means a lot :') **

**Don't hesitate to also tell me what you think about these two :3**


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